Real estate
BY ELISABETH JIMENEZ
Home Edition
2025
Readers, welcome to your annual Community Impact Home Edition! This annual guide features news from key real estate trends to tips on buying a home for the rst time. All of the stories included in this guide are compiled by our team of local journalists. The goal of this guide, published every July, is to bring readers vital information about home ownership and real estate in South Central Austin. Our cover story this month ties into our Home Edition. Reporters Elisabeth Jimenez and Ben Thompson explore the rising cost of homeowner’s insurance, and how factors such as weather events continue to play a role. Did you know that home insurance costs in Texas remain among the highest in the United States? Find out more about the why and what homeowners need to know on page 22. Thank you for reading and we hope you enjoy this year’s Home Edition.
What's inside
Learn more about revisions to an Austin building program (Page 19)
Elle Bent Editor ebent@ communityimpact.com
Check out how locals work to make homeownership attainable (Page 20)
Discover local resident market data (Page 24)
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Locals turn to regenerative agriculture in times of drought
the space between them, Topiwala said. During rain events, water will rush through the swales and feed into the berms, hydrating the soil. Hays County resident and permaculturalist Annie Spade said incorporating native plant species can be bene cial for the landscape. She encourages experi- menting with di erent plants to see what works best for an individual’s home. “That’s the beautiful thing about native plants— they will naturalize,” she said. “They will just live in the places that work for them.” The bigger picture Despite recent rainfall, drought conditions are projected to persist for at least the next three months, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Topiwala said regenerative agriculture is one easy way to positively impact a stressed environment. “There’s things that we can do at home that will have amazing impacts on the microclimate of your local environment,” he said.
Despite recent rainfall, the U.S. Drought Monitor is projecting drought for the next three months as of July 21. Locals are working to rehydrate the land through practices such as regenerative agriculture. The background Regenerative agriculture focuses on restoring the environment by promoting biodiversity and rebuild- ing soil, said Kiran Topiwala, owner at Nurture Nature Regenerative Landscaping. Similar to xeriscaping—a landscaping approach focusing speci cally on water conservation through planting native, drought-tolerant species—regener- ative agriculture takes the practice a step further by “being proactive in the restoration of the environ- ment,” Topiwala said. How it works People can incorporate regenerative agriculture into their homes through “low tech” systems such as berms, or raised gardening mounds; and swales,
The setup
Regenerative agriculture can be done at home and helps rehydrate plants.
Berm: raised mound to improve drainage
SOURCE: NURTURE NATURE REGENERATIVE LANDSCAPING COMMUNITY IMPACT
Swale: collects runo to go back into the ground
Drought-tolerant plants
The following plants are perennial, drought- tolerant and deer-resistant. For sunlit areas For shaded areas
• Flame acanthus • Mistflower • Lantana • Skeleton-leaf goldeneye
• Turks cap • Chili pequin • Beautyberry
SOURCE: PERMACULTURALIST ANNIE SPADE COMMUNITY IMPACT
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SOUTH CENTRAL AUSTIN EDITION
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